Expedition to the Zambesi River. 551 



reached Zumbo on November 4, having collected in different 

 localities during the journey. Zumbo is the last place in 

 Portuguese East Africa^ and just beyond it, at the point where 

 the Loangue river falls into the Zambesi, a line drawn true 

 north and south determines the boundary of British and 

 Portuguese territory. Zumbo is a military station, consisting 

 of a commandant and a company of native soldiers. A few 

 white-walled houses of brick close to the river belong to the 

 Portuguese inhabitants, while on the rising ground behind is 

 the extensive native village, whose straw-built huts bear a 

 striking contrast to the dwellings of the white people. 



With a fresh crew of paddlers, we left for the mouth of 

 the Kafue river, in lat, 16° south, up which we journeyed 

 for five days, and were then stopped by impassable rapids, 

 the water converging into a narrow rocky defile and falling 

 from a height of 15 to 20 feet. Lack of means and the near 

 approach of the rainy season prevented the negotiation of 

 these rapids, so we started for the coast the same way as 

 we had come, bringing with us a collection of 914 bird-skins, 

 which included 212 species. Both when going up the river 

 and returning, the Portuguese commandants, especially at 

 Chishomba, just above Chicowa, showed us much kindness, 

 while many of the native chiefs on our route presented us 

 with fowls, eggs, and meal. 



The natives of Mashakolumbwe-land, through which the 

 Kafue river flows (or the Kafukwe river, as it is known by 

 the natives), showed us no hospitality, leaving us severely 

 alone. They are not a nice race, for treachery lies at the 

 back of their characters. Their features are clearer cut than 

 those of the Zambesi natives, and they dress their hair in a 

 peculiar manner, into the shape of a hayrick, dyeing it with 

 a red chalk which they get out of the ground. 



The Kafue, as far as we went, is a magnificent river, with 

 deep water and clean-cut banks clothed with wood, while the 

 stream never flows more than two miles an hour, very different 

 from the current of the Zambesi, which runs in places from 

 eight to nine miles an hour. Where the Zambesi passes 

 through flat low-lying country, great stretches of reed-beds 



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